Isn’t it funny to suddenly live in a time where Microsoft is leading and others follow? The perennial late-to-the-party Windows giant has somehow set the tone for Apple and Google and a growing number of system manufacturers in something I like to call the Ultrabet Race.

What’s an Ultrabet? It’s a tablet and an ultraportable, or — looked at another way — a tablet that only reaches its full potential when attached to its companion keyboard. The pairing is far more symbiotic than that of a typical Bluetooth keyboard accessory and tablet. These keyboards literally provide support and or connectivity.

In introducing Google’s Pixel C (where the “C” stands for “convertible”) on Tuesday, Andrew Bowers, Google's director of product management, explained, “We’ve been thinking about how to make other form factors easier to use, like tablets.” Sorry, I didn’t realize tablets were difficult to use, but Google can be forgiven because this is clearly not about ease of use.

It's about competition.

Apple followed Microsoft’s increasingly popular Surface Pro 3 Ultrabet with its own iPad Pro and Smart Keyboard (and a digital pencil!). Maybe Bowers should have said, “We’ve been thinking about how to answer the Surface Pro. Then Apple introduced the iPad Pro and we were like, ‘Guys, tablets and companion keyboards are officially a thing.’”

Bower also said, “In the case of tablets we asked ourselves, what would an ideal touch-plus-typing experience look like?” I assume that at this moment, they simply pulled out a Microsoft Surface Pro.

Google’s new Pixel C is undoubtedly an Ultrabet. Built from the ground up by Google, the Android Marshmallow device can be purchased separately ($499 for the 32 GB model), but Google clearly wants everyone to buy it with the optional $149 keyboard.

Google designed the keyboard to attach to self-aligning magnets embedded in the Pixel C tablet. The idea is to have the keyboard with you even when you’re not using it, prizing utility over size and, obviously, weight. Google didn’t even bother to show off the Pixel C without its slightly parasitic buddy. To be fair, find me a recent commercial or ad where Microsoft shows the Surface without its Type Cover.

Familiar

Yes, when I first saw the Pixel C with its keyboard, I thought I was looking at a Surface Pro clone. I had similar feeling when I saw the giant Apple iPad Pro.

That said, there are differences between the Pixel C and other Ultrabets. The Pixel C keyboard, for example, does not electrically connect to the tablet. Both the Surface Pro and iPad Pro connect to their keyboards through special physical connections that are pretty well hidden on the tablets. The Pixel C goes old-school and uses Bluetooth.

Even so, every time Bowers insisted that the Pixel C was different than other convertibles, saying things like, “there’s no kickstand or clasp mechanism to get in the way,” I saw similarities.

Google's Pixel C keyboard includes and adjustable stand.

Image: Google

The Pixel C’s Keyboard includes a fully adjustable back brace that allows you to put the tablet in almost any position (between 100 and 130 degree angles), just like the Surface’s kickstand (which is attached to the tablet). Like the Surface Pro’s keyboard, the Pixel C’s keyboard attaches to it via powerful magnets. “It’s really sturdy,” said Bowers, “I can hold it by the tablet, I can hold it by the keyboard, I can hold it upside down.”

The demonstration was almost an exact duplicate of the one Microsoft conducted when it first unveiled the Surface tablet. Somewhere in my archives I have a picture of former Microsoft Windows head Steven Sinofsky holding his Surface by the keyboard, dangling the heavier tablet, just as Bowers did at the Nexus event on Tuesday.

Bowers even said, “It’s very easy to use on your lap,” though he smartly avoided Microsoft’s term “lapability.”

Like the Surface Pro 3 and iPad Pro, the screen Pixel C screen size is more of a 4:3 ratio to make it a better fit for use with a connected keyboard. Of course, Bower’s explanation could’ve used some work. “The screen size is 10.2 inches with a square root of two aspect ratio. Now that’s a metric area ratio that’s used by A-Series paper of which A4 is the standard letter format throughout much of the world.” Uh, okay.

The Google Pixel C from the side.

One little bit of innovation Apple and Microsoft might want to copy, though, is the inductive technology the Pixel C uses to charge its keyboard. However, for them I would switch it around and put batteries in the keyboard and use them to let the tablets sip power, even when the devices are folded closed or, in the case of the Surface Pro, the keyboard is folded around to the back of the device.

Platforms

In the growing Ultrabet battle, Microsoft still stands apart from these newcomers. Even though the Surface line was launched on an ARM-based version of Windows (RT), Microsoft quickly and smartly shifted focus to the x86-running Surface Pro line. These Intel-based devices offer full Windows 10 and native Windows application support. They truly are productivity workhorses.

By contrast, the Pixel C follows Apple’s iPad Pro playbook. Both devices run mobile OSes, Android and iOS, respectively. That will, to some extent, limit the productivity apps that can run on these Ultrabets.

If however, Apple and Google’s Ultrabets become popular, Google may consider a Chrome OS Pixel C and Apple could always split the difference and add touch to a MacBook Air screen. (Hey, it could happen!)

No matter what these companies do, though, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Microsoft is finally setting the tone, at least for the Ultrabet battle.

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